External Hard Drive Recovery

With over 25 years of industry-leading expertise, Coventry Data Recovery provides trusted and professional external hard disk data recovery services for individuals, businesses, government departments, and global organisations. From everyday data loss issues to complex physical or firmware failures, we offer a comprehensive recovery solution for all external hard drive makes, models, and problems.

Supported Manufacturers – Top 20 External Drive Brands in the UK

We recover data from all major external hard drive brands sold in the UK, including their most popular models:

1. Seagate – Expansion Portable, Backup Plus, One Touch
2. Western Digital (WD) – My Passport, Elements, My Book
3. Samsung – T7 Shield, Portable SSD T5, T9 SSD
4. Toshiba – Canvio Basics, Canvio Advance
5. ADATA – HD710 Pro, SE800
6. SanDisk – Extreme Portable SSD, Ultra Dual Drive
7. Kingston – XS2000, DataTraveler Max
8. Crucial – X8, X6 Portable SSD
9. Sabrent – Rocket Nano, Rocket XTRM-Q
10. PNY – Elite-X, Pro Elite
11. LaCie (by Seagate) – Rugged Mini, d2 Professional
12. Transcend – StoreJet 25M3, ESD350C
13. Corsair – EX100U, MP600 Core XT
14. TeamGroup – PD1000, T-Force A440 Pro
15. Intel – SSD 660p, 670p
16. Fujitsu – HandyDrive
17. Verbatim – Store ‘n’ Go, Fingerprint Secure HDD
18. iStorage – diskAshur2, diskAshur M2 (encrypted)
19. Greenliant – ArmourDrive
20. Angelbird – SSD2GO PKT MK2

Supported Interfaces

We can recover data from any external hard disk interface, including:

• SATA (Serial ATA)
• PATA / IDE
• USB 2.0 / USB 3.0 / USB-C
• NVMe (via external enclosures)
• FireWire 400 / 800
• Thunderbolt
• eSATA
• PCIe / M.2 / U.2
• SCSI / SAS

Common External Hard Disk Problems – Top 30 Faults We Recover Data From

1. Mechanical Failure – Diagnosed in a cleanroom lab and resolved with donor parts.
2. Bad Sectors – Sector-level imaging with controlled read retries.
3. Firmware Corruption – Firmware modules rebuilt using vendor-specific tools.
4. Logical Corruption – File system repaired or rebuilt using hex-level tools.
5. PCB Failure – Circuit board replaced; ROM chip transferred if needed.
6. Head Crash – Damaged heads swapped in ISO 5 cleanroom for platter-safe imaging.
7. Platter Damage – Light damage tolerated using adaptive read tools.
8. Spindle Seizure – Platter set carefully transferred to working chassis.
9. SSD Controller Failure – Requires chip-off or BGA rework to dump NAND content.
10. NAND Flash Wear – Decryption and ECC correction applied post dump.
11. Drive Not Recognised by System – Repaired firmware or interface board.
12. Power Surge Damage – Power protection circuits and fuses replaced.
13. Encrypted Drive Failures – Key extraction and manual decryption where possible.
14. Overheating Drives – Dealt with quickly to avoid permanent degradation.
15. Clicking Sound – Suggests failed heads; physical repair required.
16. Beeping Sound – Spindle issues or seized motor.
17. USB Port Damage – Interface port rebuilt or replaced.
18. Water or Liquid Damage – Full disassembly, corrosion cleaning and dry rework.
19. Fire Damage – Recovery possible from internal platters if not melted.
20. Dropped Drive – Often results in head or spindle damage; cleanroom required.
21. Accidental File Deletion – File system parsing and carving techniques used.
22. Accidental Reformat – Partition reconstruction via metadata analysis.
23. Initialisation Without Formatting – Raw data carving and partition table rebuild.
24. BIOS/UEFI Doesn’t Detect Drive – Interface or controller issue resolved.
25. Corrupt Partition Table – GPT/MBR rebuild from residual data structures.
26. Unsupported File System – XFS, EXT4, HFS+ recovery using custom tools.
27. BitLocker Encrypted Drives – Recovery possible if credentials or keys available.
28. Drive Freezes During Access – Stabilised using firmware read control tools.
29. Short Circuits – Voltage regulators and diodes tested and replaced.
30. Manufacturing Defect – Firmware bugs corrected via specialist vendor tools.

Our Recovery Process – Step-by-Step

1. Free Diagnostics – We assess the drive without any obligation or charge.
2. Failure Classification – Identifying physical, firmware, or logical issues.
3. Imaging Process – A full sector-by-sector clone is created to prevent data loss.
4. Data Reconstruction – Damaged partitions, file tables or structures are rebuilt.
5. Integrity Verification – We check recovered data against expected file systems.
6. Data Delivery – Secure transfer of recovered data to a new medium.

Why Choose Coventry Data Recovery?

• 25 Years of Specialist Experience
• Cleanroom Environment
• Expertise Across 1000s of External Drive Failures
• No Data – No Fee Guarantee on Most Services
• Priority & Emergency Services Available
• Friendly and Transparent Service with Full Reporting

Supported File Systems

• NTFS, exFAT, FAT32
• HFS+, APFS (macOS)
• EXT3, EXT4 (Linux)
• XFS, Btrfs, ReFS
• BitLocker, TrueCrypt, VeraCrypt encrypted volumes

Contact Coventry Data Recovery Today

Whether your external hard drive is unresponsive, damaged, encrypted or formatted, Coventry Data Recovery offers expert external hard disk data recovery services for every situation. Contact our engineers today for a free diagnostic and let us help recover your important files quickly, securely, and professionally.